Context and Technology Bound Motives for the Use of Electricity in Industrial Thermal Processes

From a thermodynamic point of view, it seems absurd to use electricity in thermal processing. The intentional reconversion of a high-quality (highest level of exergy) and consequently expensive form of energy, electricity, to produce heat, seems at first sight an inattentive dealing with entropy. Nevertheless, in industry many processes can be found that use electricity as energy source, even in energy intensive processes as e.g. metal melting. Considering the economic boundary conditions in which industrial activity usually takes place, it must be possible to indicate motives that justify the use of electricity in industrial thermal processing. Tracing these motives is the subject of this doctoral research.

At the outset, a distinction is made between context and technology bound motives. Context bound motives concern the social, economical, or ergonomical boundary conditions in which industrial activity occurs. The fact that the increase in labour cost stimulates the use of electricity in industrial processing as these electrical techniques are easy to automize, is an illustration of a context bound motive. Technology bound motives are linked to the development of technology. The emergence of power electronics, broadening the application range of induction heating, is an example of such a technology bound motive.

In spite of the thermodynamical incongruity of reconverting electricity into heat, since almost hundred years “electroheat” exists as a genuine field of study. Considering the synthetical perspective given by the existence of a mere field of study, the research question of this dissertation, - to trace the context and technology bound motives for the use of electricity in industrial thermal processing – is also examined by questioning the identity and reason for existence of a scientific field of study fitting academic curricula. By this double viewpoint, the industrial phenomenon on the one hand and field of study on the other become throughout this dissertation mutually interchangeable perspectives from which an answer to the research question is looked for.

To get insight into the motives for the use of electricity in industrial thermal processing, a variety of information sources is consulted. The method used in the exploration of information sources let diversity prevail over profundity or completeness.

At first, an attempt is made to sketch the identity of “electroheat” by considering publications from this field of study throughout the years. Subsequently, the industrial perspective is introduced by exploring the reports on feasibility studies produced by an industrial electroheat laboratory. The history of an international association for which the promotion of the use of electricity in industrial thermal processing belongs to its core mission, validates the findings on an international level. “What are the motives that are usually formulated from a purely commercial objective?”, is the specific question that induces the examination of promotional material edited by electroheat equipment manufacturers. At last, the specific way of speaking is examined as used by industry itself when handling electricity in thermal processing. The investigation of this diversity of information sources learns that in some situations the use of electricity in industrial processing has a sound scientific basis indeed. More importantly, the investigation learns that, as a consequence of technological progress, the motives for the use of electricity in industrial thermal processing more and more concern the interaction of electromagnetic energy with materials. In particular, it is shown that this interaction with material in some applications happens at a level for which the macroscopic approach, as suggested by thermodynamics, is no longer adequate. There is a need for new theory building, based on the results – partly still to acquire - of interdisciplinary research. Finally, it is argued that in the current state of affairs, the concept of “wavelength” can be used as a useful structuring principle in an actualized field of study, for which the denomination “electromagnetic processing of materials” can be suggested.

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